I don't know too much about Atkins so I may be talking out of my ass, but I always got the impression it was little more than a short-term crash diet type thing with possible health risks for your heart. I don't know for sure if this is true, but it's the main thing that's put me off in the past - i.e. I would like to lose weight quickly, but I don't want to risk shortening my life doing it. I think the South Beach Diet is better, healthier than Atkins, but it's still a short-term plan isn't it?
For me the only true working diet plan as such, ignoring BFL and exercise etc, is Weight Watchers because it's based on food energy intake measured against food energy expenditure. BFL does the same sort of thing which is why that makes sense to me too.
I think BFL and Weight Watchers are the only commercial type plans I've seen that make any sense because they're both based on being sustainable, i.e. you could live the rest of your life following them without steadily killing yourself and be healthy at the same time.
Logically no one should need any kind of diet plan if they thought about it, we just need to exercise a bit every day and not consume more calories than we burn and we'd all be fine figures of human beings. Only life these days is far more complicated than it used to be, so most of us need some structured plans to follow.
Anyways, I don't know why I said all that, it's just my way of looking at things really. It will be interesting to see how you go, whatever you do, and don't let my meanderings put you off if you have a definite plan in mind.
